


Hear No Evil

by dayofblacksun



Category: Z Nation (TV)
Genre: Deaf Character, Death, Gen, Original Character(s), Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 19:17:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11881074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dayofblacksun/pseuds/dayofblacksun
Summary: Berry's just trying to make art in peace and spread kindness without zombies ruining everything.





	Hear No Evil

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Z Nation, any of its content or characters.

"Doc, I don't think we're going to find anything here. Looks like this place was cleaned out awhile ago," Charles Garnett called out as he exited the small town pharmacy. His boots crunched against the gravel, pebbles and light layer of snow on the ground.

Garnett sighed, gripping his hammer tighter. He glanced around at the desolate small town, mentally lamenting their failure to acquire any new supplies for Camp Blue Sky. The past winter was harsher than the previous year's. The survivor camp used up a lot of their resources, especially medicine, to just make it through the cold season. He and Doc were sent out to scavenge the small town for medicine and fuel, and anything else that might be useful. But so far, the trip was a bust. All they found were an nearly empty gas can, a banged up first aid kit and miraculously, a still frozen Z.

"Doc," Garnett said, knocking on the glass door. "I think we should head back. We got a three and a half hour walk ahead of us, more if it starts snowing."

He went to open the pharmacy door, but a crash in the hardware store next door stopped him. He whipped out his gun aimed at the front of the shop. After waiting for what felt like 15 minutes but closer to five, Garnett stepped forward to investigate. However, what came out was not a Z, but a teenage girl holding two paint buckets.

The girl's clothes were surprisingly intact and clean for a zombie apocalypse, as was the girl herself. Her hair was braided against her head in a crown, he approvingly noted. Unfriendlies would have a hard time grabbing it. But her clothes were thin looking for the weather. She wore a light, fur collared denim jacket, faded laced hooded pink sweatshirt, tight olive cargo pants and...bright lavender combat boots.

One of the paint buckets was either dripping paint or blood and Garnett was worried enough to ask. He slowly lowered his gun and hesitantly called out to the girl.

"Hey! You alright?"

But she gave no response. Garnett prepared to shout, but was interrupted by Doc's own.

"Garnett, oh man, you gotta come back and take a look-!"

Unfortunately, in Doc's apparent rush to Garnett, he shoved the pharmacy door open a little too hard and clipped Garnett's forehead, knocking the man down and out. His gun fell some ways away, sliding to a stop. Doc fell to his knees near him, hands hovering over his head and spewing apologies.

Garnett slowly blinked at his gun, forcing his eyes to travel from the ground back to the girl who seemed to finally notice him. His vision darkened and the last thing he saw was the girl's face.

"Oh man, oh man, oh man," Doc panicked.

Doc was out back of the pharmacy, taking a leak when he saw it, the most beautiful thing of the apocalypse so far besides the tiny bag of weed he found six months ago. The back pharmacy wall had a painterly style mural of the Brooklyn Bridge with lanes of rough-looking people holding hands and walking towards the lit New York skyline. The top left corner had a white air craft with the minuscule words, United States of America, flying toward the city.

And while the mural itself was amazing, the top right corner was the most beautiful thing he'd witnessed: 8 AZ. Somewhere out in their messed up world, was someone who believed in a somewhat early end of the apocalypse. They hoped for it, had vision and ambition enough to paint it.

Doc zipped his pants and took a step back to admire the whole mural. He stood behind the pharmacy with a small grin and unknown danger of the woods at his back. He shook his head and walked back to the door, but not before seeing a small, vibrant red crowned strawberry in the bottom right corner.

While in no hurry, but excited to show Garnett, he accidentally knocked him out in a random town hours away from the camp. Doc panicked, wildly looking at their surroundings. It was late winter, so a Z was unlikely to show up, but it would be stupid to let down his guard.

He nearly had a heart attack when he heard someone or something walking toward the downed duo. His head snapped in the direction of the noise and nearly exhaled with relief; it was only a teenage girl. She was cautiously strolling forward, glancing at Garnett then back to him.

"Hey, Kid. I don't want any trouble, and I won't trouble you, but would you mind helping me and my friend here?"

She didn't reply, but she did stop next to the gun. Doc's eyes widened, and before he could stand, she bent down and picked it up. The girl took a few steps forward and glared.

"Oh shit."

She aimed the gun at him and he scrunched his eyes closed and waited for one click, one shot, one spray of brain matter.

It never came.

Squelch.

Doc opened one eye, and when he realized he was still alive, he opened the other. From where she stood, the girl lowered one hand, gesturing behind him with the other that held the gun. Doc swiveled around and gulped.

The half-eaten frozen undead member he and Garnet wandered passed earlier had slowly crept up on the men still on the ground. But it was stopped before it got too close for comfort with a...

"Is that a paint brush?!"

Doc turned back to the girl and nearly jumped away because she crept up and kneeled down next to him. She placed Garnett's gun in his hands with a smile and offered Doc a red object.

Doc looked down and gasped. "Is that an Etch A Sketch? Now this is cool and all, I used to love these things, but why are you-"

The drawing toy elegantly wrote out a name.

"I'm Berry."

Garnett woke up with a groan, uncomfortably warm and nursing a headache. He reached up to gingerly touch his forehead but was met with a little resistance considering his arms were trapped to the sides of his body. He looked down his body, astonished to find it tucked in three layers of blankets on a cot and surrounded by pillows. Startled, he shifted his gaze to his surroundings. His cot was tucked in a corner, behind what seemed to be the only furniture in the room, an old blue couch. Light streamed across the room from the window slightly above him, illuminating a wall full of sketches of a Pre-Z world and paintings of a Post-Z world.

"Garnett?"

Doc's voice came from the blue couch.

Garnett furrowed his brow. "Doc?"

Doc's head popped up from behind the couch and looked back at him. He grinned, sprung off the couch and made his way toward Garnett.

"How're you feeling? How's the head? Berry's been real nice, offered food and shelter and applied something to that cut on your forehead in lieu of medicine. Sorry about that, by the way. I didn't mean to knock you out, I just wanted to show you something."

Garnett nodded, accepting the apology, albeit still confused.

"It's fine, Doc. But where are we? Is this place safe? Who's Barry? Does he know that girl I saw? Is she okay? How long have we been here?"

Garnett moved to get up, but Doc pushed him back down.

"Whoa there, don't ruin Berry's set up. That's a lot of questions. I'll try to answer in that order: Berry's cabin. Yes, well, as safe as things can be these days. Berry killed a Z that snuck up on us and brought you here. Uhhh, in a way, yes. Not long, it's only been about two hours since we were at that pharmacy."

Before Garnett could ask after Barry some more, the girl from the hardware store poked her head through a door he missed earlier, too distracted by the wall of art. Doc smiled and waved at the girl. The girl returned the smile and disappeared for a minute.

"What's her name?"

"That's Berry. With an E. She killed that zombie I mentioned earlier with a paint brush to its eye. Before that, I thought she was going to shoot me with your gun, but she just handed it to me with a smile on her face. She went back into that hardware store and reappeared with a wheelbarrow of all things. She offered us food and shelter, so we rolled back to this cabin. She's lived here for a few months. It's hidden in the woods near the edge of town."

"And we can trust her?"

"Well, she offered two strange men sanctuary, tucked you in and bandaged your cut. I don't think we have anything to worry about. In fact, she should be worried about us, not that we'd mug her or anything."

The girl, Berry, made a reappearance, carrying a steaming pot in her arms with three cups balanced on the lid. She walked behind the couch, carefully set it on the floor and sat down. Berry opened the lid, revealing the ladle inside and the green rice porridge. She glanced at Doc and nodded toward the ladle.

Doc lunged forward but strangely kept his face turned toward the girl. "Don't mind if I do. This smells amazing, Berry. Although, the color is a little off-putting..."

Berry shrugged her shoulders with a small smile.

"Doc," Garnett said, exasperated.

"Sorry about that, Berry. I want to thank you for all your help. You've been so kind and generous. Not many people would do what you've done for us today," he said with a grateful smile aimed at the teenager, but she ignored him.

Garnett frowned as she just ladled the porridge in a cup and then raised it toward him. He slowly brought his arms out of the blanket trap and accepted the food.

Doc winced. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you...Don't take it personally if she ignores you. Berry's deaf."

He sharply glanced at Doc, peeking at Berry from the corner of his eye. "What?"

"Yeah, I thought she just was unique and had a habit of ignoring every other thing I asked, but we communicated through writing and she told me she was deaf. She said she can read lips as long as a person isn't speaking too fast."

Garnett stared at Berry, shocked. I guess that explains why she didn't notice me at the pharmacy earlier, he thought. The girl was content to slurp her food for a few seconds before glancing at her company. Her eyes met his.

"Thank you for everything you have done for us, Berry. Not many people would be so generous or helpful."

Garnett watched as the brunette digested his words, focusing a little on his mouth. Once she registered what he said, Berry simply smiled and shrugged.

He was quick to ask something while he still had her attention. "Berry, do you mind if I ask you something a little personal?" She slowly shook her head from side to side.

"Can you speak? Do you know sign language?"

Doc swallowed a mouthful of the porridge, bemusedly staring at Garnett.

Berry glanced away, shaking her head. But her lips parted. "...I haven't mastered sign language," she whispered. Doc and Garnett eyes' widened. Berry continued, "I became ill two years Pre-Z and then I was deaf. I have a problem with volume control. Sometimes I don't know if I'm yelling or whispering. Considering this is the zombie apocalypse, I prefer not to speak just in case I yell and attract Z's. Instead, if I have to, I use this to communicate," Berry said, pulling out the Etch A Sketch.

She showed the men the latest image on the drawing tool. Doc's beanie-clad head stared them down.

"Wow, kid! You perfectly captured my devilish good looks." Doc gasped, "That reminds me! Garnett, Berry is an artist! That's why I rushed out of the pharmacy so fast. I wanted to show you this amazing mural she painted."

Garnett gazed at the Doc drawing and then back at the art wall. "I believe it," he said, faintly.

Doc lifted his cup and tapped Berry on the shoulder. "So Berry, this is great, but what is it?"

"Nettle."

Doc choked, "Stinging nettle?" Garnett stared at his own cup dubiously.

Berry smiled and nodded.

"But how is it so good and not irritating the hell out of our throats?"

"I boiled it. My grandma loved alternative medicine and made lots of herbal remedies. She taught me about various different plants, like what's edible or what helps fight infections. Nettles are actually very good for you; they have a lot of protein. I used mint oil on his forehead cut to prevent infection and soothe any headache."

Berry loudly laughed at their bewildered faces before slurping her porridge again. Garnett and Doc mimicked her action.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
